Birthday Apron

So I haven’t really made good on my last post but I still hope to.  We ended up going to CA for the weekend and had a great time visiting my family.  It took me a couple days to recover from the lack of sleep and attempt to get things in order.  Today I did manage to finish up this apron for a friend of mine and deliver it to her for her birthday this afternoon.  I love this Mary Engelbreit fabric.  I found it at thrift store a while back.  The swiss dot was a remnant I found at Hobby Lobby and the rick rack is from Wal-Mart.  My friend bakes bread and sells it so I thought an apron would make a great gift.  I hope she gets a lot of use from it. I had Josh take a quick picture before I headed out the door.  The phone rang in the midst of the picture taking so I think that’s why it’s a bit crooked.

I’ve been kind of lost lately without sewing aprons constantly so it was nice to sew for a bit today.  It was mostly done.  All I had to do was make the ties and sew up the sides of the apron.  I have several more yards of this fabric so I’ll probably make a couple more to use it up.

Back to my regular schedule…

Just wanted to show what I’ve been up to lately.  In just under 10 weeks I sewed just over 90 aprons.  I snapped a quick picture of them before they headed out the door to Utah for Swiss Days in Midway, UT this weekend.  They are all so cute.  The most adorable fabric and each one has about 6 yards of rick rack.  Stop by and see them in booth A-35 and tell them I sent you.  I’ve been working on them every spare second I had.  Now I’m kind of lost without them to work on.  I’m switching gears getting the house back in shape and taking stock of my projects and trying to figure out what to tackle first.  I’m sure I’ll be blogging more regularly now so check back often to see what’s new.

p.s.  they’ll also have some amazing furniture in their booth.  Check out their blog to see pics.

$1 Apron Tutorial

I found this piece of upholstery material at the Goodwill a couple weeks ago for $1 and thought it would make a great apron! It started out about 28" square.
First, I cut two 3" strips off one side to use for ties.

I folded the ties right side together and sewed one end and one side then used a pencil to turn them right side out. For the vintage apron I topstitched around the ties but didn't on this apron since the fabric is a lot stiffer I figured they would stay in place.

Then I cut a 6" strip off the other side of the fabric and turned the top & bottom over a 1/4" twice and topstitched along each edge to hold in place. After sewing across the pocket I pinned it in place and sewed along the bottom of the pocket. I also topstitched two lines down the pocket to turn it into three. After the pocket was in place I turned the bottom and sides over a 1/4" twice and sewed to finish it.

Finished apron. Can you see where I sewed across the pocket to make three?
Good thing I still had my walking foot on my sewing machine. It was a little tricky to navigate sewing through all the layers since this fabric was pretty thick.

Here's my self portrait in the mirror wearing my new apron. It's going to be so handy! It might end up as my gardening apron to hold my tools. I have lots of weeds to pull in the back yard and need to get started on them!

Vintage Apron

I've been so busy crafting lately that I haven't spent nearly enough time posting all my creations. Since I hadn't sewed a piece of clothing in about 15 years I thought a simple apron would be good practice. I went to JoAnn's a couple weeks ago and got a couple cute patterns that were on sale for a dollar each. This is made from the Sewing for Dummies pattern. It's made from some fabric I had in my stash that appeared to be quite old. It just ties in the back. The pattern called for making the neck strap adjustable through two D-rings but I just made an extra tie and sewed it to both sides to slip over my neck - much easier! Sorry the picture's not that great. I thought this would be easier than setting the timer but the lighting not's too great. I figured this would be a good way to use up some random pieces of fabric I've collected over the years. I'm sure I'll be making more soon!